Milan Derby Could Bring Paulo Fonseca’s Spell at the San Siro to a Bitter End

Such is the importance of food and football in Italy, that one of the Peninsula’s culinary staples is the benchmark against which managers are measured. 

In calcio’s lexicon, coaches whose tenure appears doomed are unlikely to eat his panettone, Italy’s traditional Christmas sweet – the implication being they are likely to get sacked before the festive period.

Thanks to Paulo Fonseca, however, the proverb may need updating.

The AC Milan manager announced earlier this week that he would treat all the journalists in attendance to pastel de nata – a Portuguese delicacy – if his team beat Liverpool in the Champions League and Inter Milan in the Derby della Madonnina three days later.

Members of the media are unlikely to have to watch their weight if the Rossoneri’s 3-1 defeat against Liverpool is anything to go by.

Milan took the lead through Christian Pulisic with three minutes played but were defensively flakier than pastry and had Liverpool been more clinical, the result could have been far worse.

The worst aspect of the debacle is that it was not unexpected.

Under Fonseca, Milan have won just once in Serie A so far and that win came against a hapless Venezia side. 

How chaotic Milan floundered against Liverpool

Jurgen Klopp once described his football as ‘organised chaos’. So far under Fonseca, Milan have fulfilled the chaos part of the bargain, but they have looked far from organised.

Against Liverpool, they were again undone by diabolical defending, with Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk scoring effectively the same goal.  

Milan has now conceded at least two goals four times in five matches in all competitions. To continue the baking analogy, there’s no sugarcoating those numbers.

The contrast with Inter Milan’s performance against Manchester City on Wednesday night could not have been starker.

The Nerazzurri defended resolutely to earn a 0-0 draw at the Etihad, making them only the second team to prevent the Premier League champions from scoring at home in 42 Champions League games under Pep Guardiola.

If anything, Inter can be slightly annoyed that Matteo Darmian and Henrikh Mkhitaryan couldn’t convert two glorious chances at the other end. 

Ahead of the game, Simone Inzaghi had urged his team to raise their game following a drab 1-1 away at Monza on Sunday night and got the response he wanted.

This was a typical Inzaghi performance, with most of Inter’s best attacking moments coming either on the counter or after breaking City’s press.

In three seasons under the former Lazio manager, the Beneamata have developed into one of the best teams in Europe thanks to a defined structure.

Inter won the Scudetto by a 19-point margin over their city rivals last season, the sixth major trophy under Inzaghi. 

The former Lazio manager often makes the point that he has a 25-man squad at his disposal, rather than starters and substitutes, to illustrate how different players can slot into a specific role at any time.

It was the case against City, where Darmian was the only survivor of the five-men midfield who drew with Monza.

Milan lack anything remotely close to Inter’s structure, but then Fonseca is a very different manager from Inzaghi. 

The Portuguese was a curious choice to replace Stefano Pioli, with a Europa League semi-final the high point of his two-season spell at Roma.

Rumours over his future have swirled from the moment he was appointed and have only grown stronger following the defeat to Liverpool.

On Thursday, La Gazzetta dello Sport suggested former Napoli and Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri is the leading candidate to replace Fonseca, with former Lazio boss Igor Tudor also in the running. 

Both are very different managers from Fonseca, which underlines the muddled thinking that led to his appointment in the first place.

Who is in charge at Milan?

“Milan needs a coach, not a manager,” Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has taken on an advisory role within the RedBird group that owns the club, said in June.

The message was clear: Milan did not want an Antonio Conte-type manager, who may at best rock the boat and at worst leave scorched ground behind him.

Ironically, those are the very same reasons Inter opted for Inzaghi three years ago.

But while the latter has almost always been in lockstep with CEO Beppe Marotta, Milan have given the impression of a club whose approach is sign first, ask Fonseca’s opinions later.

As Ibrahimovic made clear on Tuesday night in a bizarre exchange with former Rossoneri hero Zvonimir Boban, he is the one in charge.

“I’m in charge, I’m the boss and everyone works for me,” the Swede said.

If he is indeed the boss, Ibrahimovic may want to revisit the transfer window, as Fabio Capello suggested

“We need to ask the person in charge of transfers,” the former AC Milan manager told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“I heard the boss [Ibrahimovic] on TV saying he’s the big cheese, right? So he must take some blame too.”

Did Inter have a better transfer window?

Both Milanese clubs spent just north of €70m (£59m) this summer but with vastly different results.

Inter already had the best squad in Serie A, meaning Inzaghi could fine-tune his options instead of embarking on a radical overhaul.

Inter brought in 2023 Scudetto winner Piotr Zielinski from Napoli and Porto striker Mehdi Taremi on a free transfer, and most of their expenditure went on making the loan signings of Davide Frattesi, Marko Arnautovic and Carlos Augusto permanent.

Milan, on the other hand, needed to bridge the gap with their rivals, but went for potential instead, spending almost half of their transfer budget on Youssouf Fofana, Strahinja Pavlović and Alex Jimenez.

While the trio could still prove to be smart investments, forking out €15m on Emerson Royal already looks a calamitous decision.

Similarly, while signing Alvaro Morata for €13m could be a bargain, the fact Milan looked at strikers with completely different traits before settling on the Spaniard hints at a lack of direction from above.

For all of their issues, Milan go into the derby with five points after four games, just three behind their city rivals.

Inter, however, have won the last six derbies in all competitions by an aggregate score of 14-2. 

A seventh consecutive defeat could well spell the end of the road for Fonseca, who may not even last long enough to see panettone hitting the shelves.

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